Ireland Conference

The second one-day Albinism Conference in Ireland took place on Saturday 15th November at the ChildVision Conference Centre in Dublin. 90 people attended from around Ireland and the UK including many children and adults with albinism.

A creche was provided for the under 12s while the adults were treated to a varied programme in the main hall.

First up was a presentation from Educational Psychologist, Joan Curran around education and employment for young people with albinism (Click to Download). This was followed by a 'Parents Panel', where parents of children with albinism had a chance to share their experiences and answer questions.

While the adults had lunch and browsed the exhibition of products and services, the children in the creche got a very special visit from Santa, who had kindly agreed to take time out of his busy pre-Christmas schedule to drop in and give gifts to all of the children.

After lunch, we had a presentation from Prof Michael O'Keefe, a consultant ophthalmologist, who provided an overview of albinism from a clinical perspective (Click to Download). We were then treated to a talk on Sports & Recreation from Paralympic Athelete with albinism, Catherine Walsh and Frank Cullinan, who provides swimming coaching to people with visual impairments.

The final session in the formal programme was an Adults with Albinism panel, where three adults with albinism shared their experiences of living with the condition and took questions.

After the formal part of the conference, many of the delegates headed over to the nearby Skylon Hotel for a gala dinner. After a tasty meal we were treated to musical entertainment from AF Trustee Roslaeen Dempsey and, our special guest, Andrea Begley, Winner of The Voice 2013 and a long time friend of Albinism Fellowship.

We hope that everyone enjoyed the day and would like to extend our thanks to everyone involved in organising and running the event, especially Rosaleen Dempsey, Treasa O Callaghan and Mark Sanderson who worked tirelessly to make it a great success.
Thanks also to everyone who came along, with more events coming up in Ireland in 2015, we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Family Weekend Conference

Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th October 2015

We are pleased to announce that our next family weekend conference will be held from Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th October 2015 at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire.

The Hayes is an established venue for charity events which combines good conference facilities with affordable family accommodation. It offers us a blank canvas to arrange activities we need for all ages. We are starting to make plans for the event now and will provide more information in the autumn.